New Horizon

Before Fleet Captain Samji directed his purpose toward getting up on stage, he had one more stop to make. He approached the Starbase 10 table where Captain Tom Paris sat as an honored guest to the proceedings, and the old ship designer stood to greet him.

"Very nice arrangement, Fleet Captain," he said motioning to the holographic ship displays, and particularly admiring the Horizon.

"Thank you, Captain Paris. I'm honored that you would choose to stay and acknowledge our fine men and women who served us so well. You are to be thanked as well for your part."

"A small part to play, in comparison," Paris said modestly. With the formalities over, he shifted to the informal kind of conversation he was more used to, and said, "So how do you like the ship, Allen? It'll be hard for me to part from it. I've grown accustomed to the big gal."

"It's magnificent, Tom. This Horizon-class is more than I could've hoped for. We really had a need to modernize our fleet, and this is a great step forward."

"Sure is... you can rename her, y'know," he said with a grin. "Sure you've have enough of 'Horizons' for ten lifetimes. You're retiring the Lotus, what about using Lotus dash A?"

Samji nodded. "I'll have to say it was my initial reaction. But you know what? I kind of like it. It shows that we are moving forward, but not forgetting what brought us here. We may have been dragged down by one Horizon, but on the sea, there's always another one you can set sail for. We have grown too accustomed to fighting battles in our own turf. We need to be explorers again, Tom. Let us boldly go toward that horizon... and beyond... as we were meant to. It's a perfect name, Tom."

Captain Paris nodded in agreement, "I like it Allen. You could rename the class though. Wouldn't require changing her paint, just some computer records. The Lotus-class... the first ship to ever be classed with that name, if my memory serves."

"U.S.S. Horizon, Lotus-class," Samji softly said, as if sounding it out for the first time to see if it fit. Then he repeated it more proudly, and confidently.

"Perfect." With a grin, he gave his friend a pat on the shoulder and a handshake and said, "I better get started before the crowd gets restless. Take care, Tom."

"You too... Fleet Captain," Paris said with a grin, and took his seat to wait for the proceedings.